A South Korean lawmaker wants to abolish the country's highly unusual age calculation system.

 

一位韩国立法者想摒弃韩国非常特殊的年龄计算制度。

 

Under the system, babies are already one year old the day they are born, and automatically turn a year older every January 1. That means that children delivered on New Year's Eve are two years old the next day.

 

This is the system most South Koreans use in their everyday life, though they use the international system for most legal matters, according to CNN.

 

Hwang Ju-hong, a member of the country's National Assembly, believes Korean ages are antiquated¹ and inefficient², CNN reported. Earlier this year, he introduced a bill that makes the international way mandatory³ across all spheres.

 

"The difference in the age calculation methods used in legal and everyday life had various adverse⁴ effects such as: wasting unnecessary administrative⁵ costs, creating confusion in information exchange due to its difference with other countries and conflict due to fostering a culture of hierarchy⁶ based on age and avoiding certain months for childbirth," his bill said, according to CNN.

 

Hwang said his bill to move away from the Korean system has widespread support from other politicians, CNN reported.

 

But the National Assembly is currently at an impasse⁷ over election bills, which means that Hwang may have to re-introduce his legislation again next year.

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